For this week, there were a lot of things going on in the world of golf. The European Tour has the Barclays Scottish Open, the PGA Tour has the John Deere Classic, and the LPGA Tour has the US Women's Open. There were definitely a lot of surprising, interesting, or significant things that happened throughout the week, and here is a countdown of the surprising things.
10: Colin Montgomerie fails to qualify for the British Open, resulting in him out of the Open the first time since 1989. What makes his week surprising, was the fact that he was actually making a big charge in the final round and at one point was actually tied for the lead with a logjam of many different players. But he stumbled on the back nine and finished T31. Speaking of Monty, he is hands down the greatest player ever to never win a PGA Tour event, let alone a major. Of course, the Scottish Open is NOT a PGA Tour event, but still. Just feel like pointin' that out.
9: David Toms's withdrawal at the John Deere. This surprised a lot of people because Toms appeared to be playing decently, with a T17 at the Travellers Championship, and showed no sign of injury until this week, when he withdrew after 9 holes because of a hip injury. Other players who withdrew were George McNeill, Scott Verplank, and Robert Garrigus. This was particularly disappointing for me because I placed a bet for Toms as a contender and McNeill as a dark horse.
8: Louis Oosthuizen's participation of the John Deere Classic. Seriously, Oosthuizen is the defending champion for the 2010 British Open. Add that to the fact that he is an Euro Tour player, one would expect him to play the Scottish Open as a good links course for the tune-up, right? WRONG!!! Oostdsgsdgdsgffen did the exact opposite of what others were doing. While many PGA Tour players played in the Scottish Open instead, Oostdgsdggewgten, despite being an European Tour member, played in the PGA Tour event instead. This is one of the most surprising entries yet, especialyl because of the fact that the John Deere course has nothing in common with a British Open links-style course. And it turns out his decision might have not been a good one, for he missed the cut by 1 stroke at the John Deere.
7: Luke Donald's another dominant win. Luke Donald continues to show why he is ranked #1 in the world, with a commanding 4-stroke victory at the rain-shortened 54-hole Scottish Open. Including a final round 63 which tied for his best round ever on the European Tour. He made just about every putt and had a brilliant short game putt as usual. Interestingly, it seems that Donald finally found a way to close the deal, with the win here and the win at Wentworth earlier the year. Before his win at Wentworth, he squandered a lead at Harbour Town to Brandt Snedeker, and then at the Volvo Match Play he lost to Ian Poulter because of his some shaky iron shots down the stretch and Poulter's brilliant short game.
6: Yet another meltdown by Graeme McDowell. McDowell was the player well-known for his clutch performances he made in 2010. His US Open win. His Ryder Cup performance. And his Chevron Challenge win. But instead, in 2011, after his multitude of third- and final-round collapses we can officially say that he was developed a reputation of throwing in the towel when things don't go his way. This was evident in the Heritage tournament at Hilton Head where at one point he was just 1 back of the leader and was very much in the hunt. But after a succession of mistakes he wound up with a T60. Then at the Players he had a 3 stroke lead at one point but a final round 79 led to him finishing T33. Then at the Wales Open after tying for the lead thru 36 holes he shot a 81 which included a 3-chip and 3-putt on the 12th hole, resulting in a T27 finish. And now at the Scottish Open, he was in contention once again, sharing the 36-hole lead but made a 9 on the Par 5 12th hole in the final round en route to a 74 and a T41 finish.
5: The bad weather effect. This week was supposed to be a very, VERY interesting and compelling week, but it seems like the weather delays are what hampered the week and it made a perfectly good week go wrong. This happened in both the Scottish Open AND the US Women's Open. At the Scottish Open play was called off early on Friday because of thunderstorms (are there really thunderstorms in Scotland?) and the storm did so much damage, including a landslide on the 1st fairway, that they couldn't get any play on Saturday because they worked all day repairing the course, and it had to be shortened to 54 holes to avoid a Monday finish which disturbs the players' preparation for the British Open. And then, on the LPGA's US Women's Open, there were weather delays on each of the four rounds, including delays for the majority of the first and third rounds, forcing a Monday finish. What makes the LPGA weather delay so weird is that it's very rare to have thunderstorms 4 days in a row. And certainly weird for the European Tour to have a storm doing so much damage to a golf course.
4: John Daly making a 13 on the 4th hole, second round. ANOTHER big score on one hole for Daly. If this were a different golfer this might be #1 or #2 in the countdown, but since it's John Daly it isn't TOO surprising or significant. Daly was flirting with the cut line in the second round, and he was 1 under par, slightly below the cut line, when he sliced a drive into the trees right. He didn't take a drop, he just tried hacking it away, and after 8 hacks, finally got out of the trees on his 9th shot. Hit his next one into a greenside bunker, hit the next one 25 feet past the hole, and two-putted for a 13. Dropped from 3 under to 6 over in one hole. He bogeyed 3 of his next 5 holes to finish with a 81, 11 over par for the tournament after a first round 72. Had he not made the 13 he would still be well below the cutline though.
3: Kyle Stanley's finish. Really, who is this guy? This guy was in contention at the Honda Classic and the AT&T National and that was just about the only other two times we've heard things about him. What was really surprising about him was the huge charge he made on the back nine Sunday. Trailing Stricker by 4 shots, he made 4 birdies in a row, from 3, 25, 18, and 36 feet, respectively. It's rare to have a rookie like Stanley make so many long putts in a row but that's what he did. However, his charge was cut short with a missed 8 foot birdie on 16. And he bogeyed 18 after his 8 footer lipped out, and he finished 1 shot behind Stricker.
2: Steve Stricker's finish. There are many things surprising about Stricker's finish. First of all, his bad luck from the bunkers. On the 6th hole, first round, he had a buried lie in the fairway bunker with the ball sitting right underneath a big lip, resulting in his only bogey of the day (he actually had to make a 8 footer just to avoid double bogey!) And then he again had a buried lie in the greenside bunker of the 5th and it took him two shots to get out of the bunker and he made double bogey. The same thing happened at the 16th and he made bogey there. Interestingly enough, Stricker actually had a 5 shot lead after 9 holes, and it looked like it was going to be a walk-away win for him, but for the next 7 holes, there was a 7 shot swing and Stricker ended up being 2 back of Kyle Stanley with 2 to play. Stricker made a 14-footer for birdie on 17. Then after driving it in the fairway bunker on 18 with another tough lie, Stricker hooked a 6-iron to 24 feet on the back fringe, and then sank the super-birdie putt to win by a stroke over Stanley who made bogey. As clutch as it gets for him.
1: And the most surprising headline of the week was the LPGA's US Women's Open crazy finish. First off, Hee Kyung Seo and So Yeon Ryu were in a 3-hole playoff after being tied for 72 holes. Wait, WHAT?!?!? WHO AND WHO?!?! That's right. Two players who were almost completely unknown on the LPGA Tour albeit being very well-known in Korea. (And many people forgot Seo's win at the 2010 Kia Classic.) Surprisingly those two played so well in the final round despite all the other competitors unable to mount any charge. Seo at one point had a three-shot lead, but when she got to the 17th hole, her group was warned about falling behind the previous group, so they had to jog between shots. That was probably the mistake Seo made, because since she was jogging, her adrenaline level increased, and as a result, with 20 feet left for birdie on 17, Seo hammered her putt 4 feet past the hole, and then missed the par putt, making bogey and her only 3-putt of the tournament. Meanwhile Ryu made an ultra-clutch birdie on the 18th hole, the toughest hole of the week, by flagging her approach shot to 6 feet and making the putt to force a playoff with Seo. In the playoff, Ryu won when Seo bogeyed the 17th hole again while Ryu birdied the same hole.
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